Reviewer:accalaurie49 -
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June 6, 2010 Subject:
The name describes the person

Simple characters in a simple story, but I liked these impressing types. OK, they usually have only one attribute, you have only black and white, nothing in between. The leading man did his job well enough.

Morgan Conway was fine as Tracy in my opinion. This generally just isn't one of the best 40's Dick Tracy vehicles. Worth one viewing.

Reviewer:saipandick -
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February 27, 2006 Subject:
Funny, as it should be

This wasn't meant to be a serious detective movie. The characters all have strange names as in the comics. The bad guys and many of the good guys have serious personality disorders. The actors don't attempt to portray their characters as real people. I found it to be weird and entertaining at the same time.

Morgan Conway (Dick Tracy) is a better actor than Ralph Byrd, who plays the famous detective in the Dick Tracy serial and a couple of other movies on the archive. However, even he can't save the story and script, which is about as interesting as melting snow. Once again Conway is teamed with Anne Jeffreys as Tess Truehart (later in her career Jeffreys played Marion Kerby, one of the two ghosts in the TV series, Topper).

As with all Dick Tracy stories, the character names are puns, e.g., Vitamin Flintheart (who constantly tosses pills into his mouth), Cueball (who is bald), Jules Sparkle (a Jeweler), Percival Priceless (owner of an antique store), and Filthy Flora (owner and operator of a bar called the Dripping Dagger).

Compounding the poor script are problems with the print. Many of the scenes are at night and most of these are so dark that they are just blotches of gray moving against a black background.